"Did they say what they're going to do with me?"
A shadow filled the doorway, blocking out the dim light from the hallway. I recognized Dare's petite silhouette. "Rabbit," she snapped, "Saga needs help in the library."
The kid flashed me an apologetic look. I smiled back and shoved the rest of the dried meat strips into his hand. That earned me a real smile before he ducked out of the room. Dare stood aside to let him pass. The tenderness with which she'd watched him fled the minute he exited. Then those eyes hardened and watched my reaction as she slowly closed us in together.
The meager light from the lantern didn't do much to expel the shadows standing between the vampire and me. Her yellow eyes glowed in the dark. She didn't approach immediately. Just stood with her back to the door, letting the tension rise between us like a poisonous gas. I might be damned but I wasn't going to be the first one to speak.
Finally, she pulled away from the wall. "Have you ever tasted blood?"
The question was so unexpected, I jerked in shock. With a wary frown, I hesitated. "Yes."
"Whose?"
I licked my dry lips. "My own."
She nodded and took her time absorbing this information. "By your own choice?"
I looked up and met her eyes. "No." I'd expected this information to please her. Instead she grimaced and looked away.
"We're not all monsters, you know." She looked back at me, to make sure I'd heard. I didn't react. Her posture was tense and her mood too unpredictable for me to want to give her any reaction that might set off a chain reaction. "I haven't had blood fresh from the source in years." She paused. When she spoke again her tone was quiet, like a confession. "And I've never had any high blood."
I stilled like an animal sensing impending attack. "Dare--"
She shook her head. "Don't worry. I'm not here to feed from you." She reached into her jacket and removed Icarus's old Colt. "I'm here for this."
Perhaps I should have felt shocked. Or scared. Or ... something. Instead, a weary numbness settled deep into my bones. Holding her gaze, I rose from the cot. She raised the gun a little higher in warning. I raised my hands out to the side and raised my chin. "Just be done with it."
Her eyes widened. "You're not going to ask me to spare you?"
I shook my head. "What's the point?"
"You're pathetic," she spat.
I lowered my arms. "What do you want from me? To beg for a life that never belonged to me in the first place? To fight for the chance to let another set of masters use me? I'm done being anyone's whore, Dare." I jerked my head toward the gun. "Do it."
The gun lowered a fraction. She stared at me intently for a full thirty seconds before she spoke. "What did they do to you?"
I squeezed my eyes together, but a traitorous tear escaped to roll down my cheek. "Just do it," I gritted out through clenched teeth.
"Six? Look at me."
I heaved out a harsh breath and opened my eyes, prepared to let her have it for dragging this out to the point of torture. But when I saw the look on her face, the numbness was burned off as hot anger roared to life. But before I could scream at her or rush her and punch the pity from her face, she spoke again. "You stink of them, you know. Their scent clings to you."
Now it was shame's turn to make an appearance. "Then you know what they did."
She tilted her head. “I thought the concubine thing was just an insult because you spoke on behalf of the Troika."
I laughed bitterly. "In exchange for my services to the Troika’s propaganda machine, I was passed around like a trophy among the highest level vampires. It was something of a badge of honor to vein fuck Alexis Sargosa's daughter." Now that I was talking, the words spilled out like bile. "Some only kept me a few days. Others claimed me for months, a couple for years. Those ones delighted in turning me into their personal slave. I did everything from clean their silver to playing a starring role in their sadistic games. A few were kind compared to the others and educated me to amuse themselves. One or two preferred me to fight back so they taught me how to use weapons and my fists. Then they’d delight in disarming me and delivering punishment for being too good a student. But mostly I just served as a blood dispenser.">"Dare," Icarus said, his voice quiet, "put down the gun."
Her jaw clenched and she looked entirely capable of ignoring his demand. Her fingers white-knuckled on the stock and her index finger twitched toward the trigger. Cold sweat beaded on my forehead and my eyes scanned the area for weapons and escape routes. The latter wasn't an option given we were on a platform suspended above a cavern of books. Even if I could jump down without breaking my leg, I'd be like a fish in a barrel.
"Look, I'm not your enemy and this isn't my war," I said in what I hoped was a reasonable tone. "I'm leaving at sunrise."
Dare's gun flashed menacingly in the light. "My friend Colt here says otherwise."
It only took a few moments to make my decision. Dare talked a good game, but I didn't really believe she'd kill me. All the resistance members in the world couldn't compete with the insider's knowledge I had of the Troika's top tier officials. I was worth way more alive to them than dead. Of the three, only Dare posed a real physical threat, even injured as she was.
I relaxed my shoulders and expression into what I hoped was a mask of defeat. Dare's eyes narrowed, but her grip on the gun relaxed a fraction. The instant I saw her buy my ruse, I ducked my shoulder and crashed into her midsection. As in slow motion I pivoted off her stomach and twisted, launching off my back foot into a dead run. Behind me, I heard a shouted curse and a worried exclamation from the old man. I didn't slow when a crash sounded, and I sure as hell didn't stick around to find out if Dare's friend had anything to say.